We Went, We Climbed and We Conquered!!!

My first trek happened to take place on Friday to Lohagad (after the trek I wondered what took me so long, but better late than never). For people who have no idea about the fort, well Lohagad is one of the hill forts of Shivaji Maharaj and is situated around 52 km from Pune on a side range of the Sahyadris. Let’s go back a few centuries and know more about the Fort. Shivaji captured the Fort in 1648 AD but was forced to surrender it to the Mughals in 1665 AD by the Treaty of Purandar. Shivaji recaptured the Fort in 1670 AD and used it for keeping his treasury.

Initially around 10-12 of us were supposed to do the trek, but people backed out (they really missed on something truly adventurous and amazing). So finally we were 6 of us, me, Nikhil, Prerna, Gaurav, Deepak and Yogesh (Baba as he his called, thanks to me :p) who set out for the trek, most of us first timers except for Gaurav and Baba. As decided we met at Dadar station at 6:15 am and as expected Deepak and Prerna were late ;). We caught hold of the Mumbai – Pune Intercity Express and reched Lonavala by 9 am. We had to wait for some time for the local train at Lonavala, till the train arrived we relished on the sandwiches brought by Nikhil. We finally reached Malavli station, the station was anything but the crowded and buzzing stations of Mumbai at that time in the morning.

We started the trek around 10:30 am. The weather was pleasant with a nice cold breeze giving us company on our way up. We had some short conversations with locals to know about the route and to acquire some info about the place. On our way we decided to visit Bhaji caves (glad we visited it before, as per original plan we had decided to visit it on our return journey). It was a typical cave, nothing too special about it. We had a look, took some snaps and then decided to head towards the Fort. What began next was the best part of the trek. We had to descend from the caves and we decided to take the short cut. The terrain was rocky, a few cactus welcomed us on the way, a dried up water fall passed by, as we went along.

After reaching down we started our journey towards the Fort. A road led all the way to the fort but we all decided to use the short cuts that were more fun than walking along the road. We took breaks in between, had plenty of water and all of us were beginning to tire. At one moment we though we were lost (we cursed each other for taking those short cuts), but we were on the right track. We took a nimbu paani break in between, and started the final part of the journey. Finally we reached the base of the fort and the steps started, we went along counting it (actually Deepak was the one counting). As he counted step no 167 we reached the gate of the Fort. We all wondered how something that was made 100s of years ago could last so long. The Fort was like all the other Forts, not properly maintained (I guess the authorities should do something about preserving them). We had our snacks, took snaps, spoke to the officer there. We were shocked when the officer told us “I take 40 minutes to climb”. Were like “kuch bhi kya”. What took us around 2.5 hours (with all those breaks) is actually covered by someone in 40 minutes. But wikipedia says it takes 2 – 2.5 hours, so we weren’t disappointed. The zephyr up their was refreshing and all the tired souls were charged up again.

We started the return journey at around 3 pm. Going down was a much easier thing. All of us enjoyed going down (that was much better than climbing..hehe). We reached Malavli station by 4:30 pm. On the station a board read

Bhaji Caves 5 km

Lohagad 9 km

We all were like “wow”, around 20 kms in a day (considering the short cuts we took). We had some food at Lonavala, bought chikki and stuff and boarded the Indrayani Express to reach Dadar at 9:45 pm.

It was a really nice experience. I guess the trek would have been more fun in the rains. The trek was tiring (treks are meant to be tiring ;).. hehe). We had fun all along the way. I personally enjoyed it a lot. At no moment I felt the need to switch on my music player ;) :p. For the first timers like me this trek has left me wanting for more, and hopefully I will have many more treks, more difficult ones than this in the future. Really “Ye Dil Maange More”.

So Near Yet So Far!!

The new cricket season began on Monday and it’s not the kind of beginning Team VJTI would have hoped for as we went down fighting by 1 run against Jai Hind in the inter collegiate cricket tournament conducted by Bengal Gymkhana, Shivaji Group and were knoced out of the tornament.

The match which took place at Azad Maidan, CST was not a typical ODI match you would expect these days. It was more like a longer version where your temperament and patience is tested. Winning the toss Jai Hind elected to bat and got off to a slow and steady start. The opener’s batted carefully and made sure no damage was done with the new ball. The partnership was finally broken by Chinmay Kurve who started the season the way he ended last years (Chinu as he is called was the highest wicket taker last year). Jai Hind played on steady and kept the score board ticking per over with around 100 runs in the first 25 overs. Then they had a move on and managed to score at a much better and healthier rate with better running and sensible cricket, getting to a respectable 167 at the end of 35 overs. Chinmay ended up with 3 wickets.

167 was always a stiff target in the detoriating wicket and our openers got to a brisk start with Tejas looking very aggressive. With 25 runs on the board Jai Hind got their first break through. I and Nikhil steadied the ship for some time after which I got out lbw on 15, followed by a bizarre mix up between Nikhil and Pramod as the debutant Pramod got run out without troubling the scorers. NIkhil and Chinmay built on an important partnership and things were looking fine at 100 for three untill when 3 wickets fell in quick succession and suddenly it was 120 for 6 with Nikhil as the only front line batsman left. Wickets kept tumbling and suddenly it was 48 from 48 with 2 wickets left. When all seemed lost Harsh gave good company to Nikhil and kept us in the running. Harsh got out trying to play an expansive shot and it was 23 in 3 overs with a wicket left. Nikhil and Rajat kept the score ticking with vital boundaries in between. The match came to the last ball as we required 3 runs from it. Nikhil flicked the ball to fine leg and managed to run 2 as Team VJTI where celebrating the tied match only to find the square leg umpire give a short run and hand over the victory to Jai Hind.

The match belonged to Nikhil Sabnis as he scored out a valiant 67 and batted out the entire innings.(I guess that’s the first time in VJTI’s history someone has batted start to finish). He showed great patience and had the right attitude to bat on the wicket which earned him Man of the Match. (a kit bag as Man of the Match in a first round match is rare these days) He continued his scintillating performance with the bat and carried on the form of last year.

This is not the beginning we would have hoped for, especially after the success of last year (winning 2 tournaments and a winning percentage of more than 70% overall). There were too many extras, over throws, confusions in field placing. On the whole we weren’t up to the mark. Time to rethink few of our strategies and start preparing for the next tournament, 'Enthusia' scheduled in the second week of January. The defending champs would like to come all guns blazing for sure.